Conversations with a Plumber
by Mislagnissa
Summary: Illyria claimed that he'd once lived seven lives at once. What if, at the end of "Time Bomb," he decided to live seven lives again? Out of six different shells across the multiverse, this one happened to be ten-year-old Benjamin Tennyson. First in the Conversations series.


A/N: This story is originally inspired by Nomma's fanfic "Conversations," from the fanfic archive Twisting the Hellmouth. Credit given where credit is due.

* * *

"Wesley, now!"

Just as Wesley pulled the trigger, time slowed to a crawl.

Illyria momentarily stared in confusion and then fell to the floor as another convulsion wracked her shell.

"You're dying," stated a second Illyria, tilting her head as she stood over the writhing first. "If you don't let Wesley drain your power, it will mean our end."

"I refuse to suffer that indignity. I would rather die than have my power stolen from me."

"Then everything we've ever worked for will amount to nothing. We have to change if we want to survive," the doppelganger stated calmly as she walked in a circle around Illyria.

Illyria screamed again as her cheek cracked, blue light spilling from the break.

"Change is weakness!"

The doppelganger paused in her steps.

"It doesn't have to be that way. Our power need not be taken from us. We lived seven lives at once. Why not live seven lives again?"

Illyria gasped in agony as more cracks broke out across her back and thighs. She lay still for a moment and then pulled herself to her feet.

"I understand now. We make a sacrifice in the short term, reaping far greater reward in the future."

"Of course," the doppelganger agreed with her.

Illyria placed her hands to her chest, blistering light suddenly pouring out of her body and pooling into her palms. The glowing cracks in her shell vanished, leaving only unbroken skin. She extended her arms in front of her, palms adjacent and facing upward.

A writhing sphere of blue light floated in her outstretched palms. A moment later, it changed, splitting into six smaller spheres, each a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. The six spheres suddenly flew outward, each heading in a different direction. The spheres vanished before they touched the walls of the dojo, each destined for a different reality to prevent their combined power from tearing this reality apart.

The doppelganger tilted her head in confusion. Illyria was gone. Yet their power had not diminished in the least. Her eyes widened in a sudden realization and she quickly turned around, just in time for the mutari generator's inverted beam to send her sprawling to the floor. She could see nothing but blank ceiling.

"Touch me and die, vermin," she protested weakly.

If anyone else had seen the exchange, and known its significance, then they would have wept in pity for the multiverse.

* * *

Ben picked up a stick and poked the strange metal sphere. He yelped and jumped back when it opened of its own accord. When nothing happened immediately, Ben tentatively walked forward and gazed inside.

A plume of old, musty dust blasted him in the face. He fell on his backside, coughing. After a few seconds, he managed to clear his airways and wiped his eyes clear. He got up and went back near the metal sphere. Now that the dust was gone, he could see what looked like a strangely-designed watch sitting inside the sphere.

"A watch?" he thought aloud.

Ben extended his hand to touch the watch when, reacting to his presence, it _jumped_ and attached itself to his wrist like a sentient being. Ben yelped in terror and fell backward again. Then the real pain began.

Back at the campsite, Gwen started as the piercing scream echoed through the forest, scaring dozens of birds into flight.

"Was that… Ben! Grandpa!" she screamed.

It wasn't difficult for Gwen and Max to find Ben with him screaming his lungs out. Seeing his grandson writhing on agony on the ground, Max quickly ran forward and scooped the poor boy in his arms.

"Ben, sport, what wrong?!" Max cried.

Ben couldn't reply, at least not in anything but whimpers and sobs. His screaming had stopped, probably due to shock. Blood spurted out of his mouth and onto Max's Hawaiian shirt. Gwen put a hand to her mouth to stifle a yelp, and tried to keep herself calm. Panicking wouldn't help Ben.

"Gwen, call an ambulance!" Max commanded.

* * *

When they arrived at the emergency room, Gwen and Max were forced to stand behind a glass dividing window, watching helplessly as the hospital staff tried desperately to stabilize Ben's deteriorating condition. The poor boy had already lost consciousness when he arrived.

"He's going into cardiac arrest. Get the paddles, now!"

The EKG kept beeping rapidly, the lines on the monitor irregular. A nurse quickly sliced open Ben's shirt and the defibrillator paddles were applied to his tiny fluttering chest.

"Clear!"

There was no change after the first shock… or the third. After the fifth shock, the EKG stopped beeping and simply let out a long, shrill tone.

Gwen buried her face in Max's shirt, tears falling down her face. Max could only stare at the limp body of his grandson in dull surprise. What was he going to tell Carl and Sandra?

The doctor standing by the body glanced at her watch.

"Time of death—"

Then, to everyone's shock, Ben abruptly sat up. He was pale, with a green tinge on his forehead and the sides of his face, and there were green highlights in his brown hair. His eyes were a much more vivid shade of green than they'd been before. He slowly held up a hand and stared at it with a bemused expression, then glanced down at his own body as though seeing it for the first time. He moved a hand and poked at his stomach.

The doctor shook off her initial shock and stepped forward.

"Mister Tennyson?" she ventured.

Ben ignored her. He glanced at his cut shirt and began fiddling with the cut edges.

"We need to move you to another room and perform some tests to make sure you're alright. Do you mind?"

Ben still didn't respond, more interested in examining his own body as though it was something completely new to him. He didn't react when the nurses moved him, either. Max and Gwen simply stood still and stared in shock at the room where Ben had been dying only moments ago. Just what had happened to him?

* * *

"I want to see my grandson. Is he alright?" said Max.

"Alright is a relative term, Mister Tennyson," the doctor replied.

"Is he alright?" Max asked again.

The doctor sighed.

"He's awake, but your grandson shouldn't be alive right now. His skin is tougher than a rhino's and his internal organs have been barbequed, for lack of a better word. I want to run more tests."

"You can run all the tests you like. Let me see my grandson!"

"Room seventeen," she stated, pointing to her right.

Max walked past the doctor and entered the sterile room. Gwen was right beside him, squeezing his arm for support. Ben was sitting in a bed, watching television as though nothing was wrong. Gwen let go of Max and ran to the bedside.

"Don't scare us like that, doofus! We were really worried!" She berated her cousin, absent-mindedly wiping tears of joy from her cheeks.

"So sport, you feeling okay?" Max asked.

Ben didn't respond immediately. After a few seconds, he glanced at his cousin and grandpa, and stared at them in confusion. A few seconds of silence passed, before the boy broke out in a wide grin.

"Never better!"

The three laughed, glad to be back to what passed for normality. Max glanced at the strangely-designed watch was attached to Ben's wrist. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed the green hourglass symbol.

"Where'd you get the watch, sport?" he asked.

Ben glanced at the watch in confusion.

"Huh. I don't—wait, I remember now. I found it in the forest inside of a metal pod that fell from space. It jumped out and attached to my arm, like it was alive or something. Then I remember waking up here. What happened?" he asked, glancing at Max.

"We don't know. You got really sick for a while, but now you're better," Max explained.

Ben's expression darkened.

"Did I die?"

"Almost. You're fine now, Ben. That's all that matters."

Ben perked up.

"Can we go now? I don't want to spend vacation in a hospital."

"My thoughts exactly, doofus," Gwen agreed.

"Dweeb!"

Max sighed as the cousins resumed their usual taunts, but he smiled when he noticed that the two seemed to be happy to fight.

* * *

In high orbit of Earth, a strange gun-shaped ship floated silently. The rents in its hull were slowly being repaired by robotic drones. On the makeshift replacement bridge, a tall, tentacle-faced alien floated inside a transparent vat, one of its arms and both of its legs blown off. A re-breather was attached to its face.

An armor-clad figure strode toward the vat and knelt before it in supplication.

"My lord," the servant began. "The drones have found the crash site. There is no sign of the Omnitrix."

"What?!"

The servant took a few steps backward, fearful of his master's wrath. The alien leader, a _chimera sui generis_ named Vilgax, paused and thought for a moment before musing aloud.

"So it seems one of the Earthlings has found the Omnitrix. No matter. If I have to remove an arm to get my prize, then so be it."

* * *

Ben stayed overnight at the hospital for observation, but when his condition didn't change aside from the green color fading back to normal, Max decided to take his grandchildren back to the campsite the next morning. They arrived shortly.

"So Grandpa, why did we come back here? I thought we were only going to stay for the last night before… you know," said Ben as he stepped out of the Rust Bucket.

"We're just gonna stay for a few minutes, sport. Would you mind showing me where you found the watch?"

"Sure."

Max turned back to Gwen, who was standing in the doorway.

"Keep an eye on the Rust Bucket, will ya Gwen?"

"Yeah, Grandpa," she replied.

Ben led Grandpa to the crash site. In the middle of a crater sat the open metal pod. It hadn't changed since last night.

"Well, this is it. What do you think it is?" asked Ben.

Max walked to the pod and bent down to examine it.

"Hmm…"

Ben put his hands in his pockets and waited while Max inspected the pod. After maybe a minute, Max stood up and walked back over to Ben.

"Find anything?" the boy asked.

"It's probably just a downed satellite or probe," Max replied.

Ben raised his eyebrows, but didn't press the issue.

When they got back to the Rust Bucket, Max decided that it was time to make breakfast. Ben and Gwen made faces as he walked into the RV, and then sat down at the nearby picnic table.

"So what do you think that watch is?" asked Gwen, glancing at the watch on Ben's wrist.

"I don't know," replied Ben. He began fiddling with it. "It doesn't want to come off. It's attached to me."

"You did find it in a crashed satellite. Maybe it's an alien parasite," Gwen joked in an attempt at a spooky voice, and then laughed.

Ben glared at her. His attention turned back to the watch when the green hourglass faceplate popped up. A holographic silhouette of a tall figure with flames coming off its body appeared above the watch. He and Gwen both awed at the holographic display.

"Whoa. I wonder what this does," said Ben, and he pressed the faceplate back down.

In an instant, the watch melded into his skin and a series of red plates spread across his body. He grew several feet and flames burst out of his head. This transformation was accompanied by a bright green flash.

The two cousins screamed in unison.

"I'm on fire! I'm on—wait, it doesn't hurt. I'm on fire and I'm okay?" said Ben.

Gwen stared at him in shock. A moment later Max burst out of the RV, drawn by the two screams.

"Ben! Gwen! Is everything—Oh my…" Max trailed off as he noticed the six-foot flaming figure standing in front of Gwen.

"Grandpa," said Gwen as she turned around. She pointed at the flaming man, shaking like a leaf. "That's Ben. He's messed with the watch and now he's a… a monster!"

Ben gave a half-hearted wave to Max.

"Hi Grandpa," he said.

Max swallowed.

"Ben's not a monster, Gwen," he began. "He's an alien."

Ben and Gwen stared at him incredulously. At their looks, Max shrugged.

"Well, what else could he be?" he added.

"How long is he gonna be like this?" asked Gwen.

Max shook his head.

"I don't know," he answered.

Ben glanced down at his new hands.

"I wonder if I have any superpowers," he mused.

Ben pointed one hand at the picnic table. A burst of flame shot out of his palm and blasted the table to pieces. Gwen and Max yelped as they ducked for cover. A moment later, they both stood up and glared at Ben. The boy shrugged.

"Sorry?" he offered.

For the next ten minutes, Ben stood and Gwen sat cross-legged outside the RV as Max went back to cooking.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" he asked, a ball of flame sitting in his hand and changing shape as he experimented with his newfound pyrokinesis.

"You're made of fire. How are you going to sit inside the RV without burning it down?" asked Gwen.

Ben groaned.

"I'll figure something—huh?"

The green hourglass symbol on his chest had suddenly turned red and began beeping. A few moments later there was another bright green flash and Ben was standing on the grass, back to normal. Ben lifted his arms in the air and whooped, and then went right back to fiddling with the watch.

"I wonder if I can change into other aliens."

"Ben," began Gwen, standing up. "Grandpa said not to—"

She was interrupted by another green flash. Now standing in front of her was an orange dog-like creature with no eyes.

"Why do I even bother?" she mused aloud, and then groaned.

At that moment, Max walked out of the Rust Bucket with their breakfast on a tray.

"So who's hungry?" he asked.

* * *

A/N: Yes, dear readers. I'm sad to say that our beloved Ben is now dead... well, more or less.


End file.
